Huawei claims to be developing 5G networks, expects to launch them in 2020

Huawei's rotating CEO and deputy chairman Ken Hu has made a guest contribution over at Forbes discussing 5G networks, stating that the company has been working on developing them for the past several years. If all goes as Huawei expects, the company plans to launch said networks commercially in 2020, stating that it would be able to offer speeds up to 100 times faster than 4G.

Such is certainly an ambitious claim and goal, and said the CEO, it would depend on airwaves being released for such use. Among its efforts, Huawei reportedly has "hundreds" of engineers working on this task as part of its research and development, something the company's CEO says is "crucially important" for the modern world.

He goes on to speak at length about the world of modern mobile devices and touches on the subject of wearable technology, expanding that into a discussion about real-time data collecting, the use of technologies to help remove human barriers, and some of the challenges and potentials all of this presents to various businesses.

Says Hu, "We need to think about today through the lens of tomorrow where the internet is a fundamental, ubiquitous infrastructure like electricity or roads." He doesn't touch on the subject of 5G networks any further than that, however, and doesn't provide any specific details on the company's progress and what has been achieved thus far.

Back in May of this year, Samsung reported that it had been testing 5G wireless service in-house, and that the network is hundreds of times faster than presently available 4G networks. The Korean company had likewise stated that it is looking into commercializing the technology by 2020, and if Huawei's claims pan out, it would seem it has company.